jc94

Interesting, I'd heard it might be coming for UK passport holders but didn't know it had been confirmed (as in, happening, jury still out on UK passports).

I do wonder how many of these things be it ETIAS, ETSA and ETA are actually helping improve our borders vs obtaining more $$$ for people.

They're certainly making travel harder in most cases. The exception being the ESTA at YYZ TB - as a UK passport holder with ESTA I'm one of a small group of people able to walk straight past all the machines and up to a kiosk

Mauricio23

I was replying to someone who didn't bother to figure out if he needed an ETA as a Canadian citizen, and you want me to go into the fine details of visa-waiver vs. visa-exempt?

keitherson

It's a security as well as a citizenship issue. Since America seems to have no problems with their ETA program for 10+ years, and have virtually identical requirements for entry, I don't see why Canadians should be complaining. Get a passport.

Stranger

???

Not sure what the point is? Canadians traveling overseas need a passport anyway.

The whole point of the eTA is about visitors from countries that don't need a visa. Not Canadians or PRs.

Stranger

You sure you get that right? I believe visa waiver is a US thing.

The following uses visa-exempt for all of these:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas-all.asp

It which it is mentioned that among visa-exempt visitors, US citizen do not need an eTA.

cur

this dialogue just goes to show how horribly awful this 'initiative' is.

nobody knows what's going on. air canada blames govt du canada when really air canada could program something onto its res that alerts the pax booking that eta is needed. united's timatic is ambigious and led me and others to get tripped up.

people rightfully complain they now have to get overpriced canadian passports which, unless you're a us citizen wanting a visa to iran, are useless as canadians pay significantly higher visa and retaliation reciprocity fees than us or uk passports. typical of some canadians, the response is 'well as a loyal subject you should stop complaining and suck it up, cause, y'know, complaining is rude' or something.

the use of this is also confusing: canada customs gets pax manifests ahead of time. this program will probably lead to false positives the same way the no fly list does little to secure anything.

some people are referring to the vwp which--although correlated--is not in any way canadian.

but what i really want to know is why the e is lower case. is this to distinguish it from the terrorist organization?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...anada-eta.html

majik

That was the response I got a few months back when I questioned in the Canada forum how the new system was going to deal with Permanent Residents. I figured that it would cause massive inconvenience, which it has.

CIC systems were down over the weekend so a whole host of Permanent Residents and visitors were denied boarding. As you mentioned there have been issues for one FTer in the UA forum and I came across another in the KL/AF forum, another PR denied boarding because of IT issues at AMS. Checking the CIC twitter feed there are another few irate travellers venting, denied boarding, missed flights etc.

Also many airlines seem to be unaware or unable to process check-in for Permanent Residents BA included. Whether the issue is lack of awareness or poor IT integration, the rollout has been a joke. Delayed twice and poorly implemented.

Stranger

Uh?

Issue has nothing to do with CAD passports. If you are a Canadian citizen, you must enter Canada as such, on a passport. Beofre eTA, after eTA.

The whoole mess is about airlines and their folks confusing Canadian expressions and US ones.

They enter US PR data (I-551) in the system instead of Canadian PR and guess what, the system answers that the guy needs an eTA. Canada has no aliens, only the US.

eigenvector

One of the issues that has arisen, or so I've heard, is that getting a PR card is not nearly as easy/fast as getting a passport. If the government makes the PR card the only means of returning to Canada for PRs (who cannot apply for an eTA in their foreign passport), then the government is also responsible for providing a similar level of service in PR card issuance as it does for passports.

majik

In fairness to CIC they have significantly reduced PR card processing times because of the implications of eTA. They are now down to 34 days from six months. If you have confirmed and paid for travel plans they process in about 21 days.

The current issues seem to stem from integrating airline IT and educating agents.

DrunkCargo

I'm just looking for clarification: Is the issue with the conveyor denying boarding, or with the border not permitting reentry?

Yes, I am aware without the conveyance the latter is moot, but still...

Stranger

Issue seems to be airline confusion. Mixing Canadian PR with US ones.

jc94

Interesting. Though New PR cards are still at 41 days (which is an average and doesn't include the 1-2 weeks it takes for CP to deliver from Sydney to anywhere in the country).

And of course, no guarantee. But still, an improvement.
Note: Those urgent plans have to involve serious illness, death, or work.

keitherson

No, the complaints are from dual citizen non-USA Canadians who don't want to pay for a passport or didn't know they need a Canadian passport to enter Canada. Sometimes they are from non-eTA countries, which means they will denied boarding, unless they have a Canadian passport.

Basically, the rule is, if you are a dual citizen Canadian, you must enter Canada on a Canadian passport, or you go through all the hoops that non-citizens need to do since you are travelling as a non-citizen: which is the insanely difficult task of just getting a passport.

Stranger

Aren't we saying the same thing?

If you are Canadian yo must enter on a Canadian passport. I don't see why we should feel bad about about people who double citizenship who try not to follow that rule. If the new system now stands in their way, all the better.

We always enter Canada on Canadian passports. Occasionally other countries on different ones. Either by obligation or by choice.

OTOH it appears that PRs have been getting in trouble because airline employees, mainly abroad, don't seem to look at the right place.